Browse Accidents and Crashes Articles

A local firefighter's home was damaged Wednesday after being struck by lightning. Deputy Chief Chris Burnham said the firefighter and his wife were at home around 4:15 p.m. when a nearby tree was struck by a bolt of lightning. The electrical charge traveled underground and caused the basement of the home at 41 Brandyview Terrace to catch fire. The firefighter, whose ...

SAN FRANCISCO - Fire crews and police could only watch after a man waded into San Francisco Bay, stood up to his neck and waited. They wanted to do something, but a policy strictly forbade them from trying to save the 50-year-old, officials said. A witness finally pulled the apparently suicidal man's lifeless body from the 54-degree water. Interim Alameda Fire ...

CARYVILLE -- Dozens of firefighters this morning were greeted with sparkling flames when a blaze erupted at a Campbell County fireworks business. Firefighters from six fire departments tackled the flames that erupted about 2:30 a.m. at Thunder Mountain Fireworks, 292 John McGhee Blvd., according to Caryville Fire Chief Eddie Hatmaker. "When we got there, flames were shooting through the roof," Hatmaker ...

John Filipowicz caught a glimpse of fire as he drove through Portland shortly after 7 p.m. Sunday, only a moment before the worst thing imaginable dawned on him. He saw the flames move and drop to the ground. Someone was on fire. Filipowicz slammed on the brakes, jumped from his 1960 GMC pickup, bolted over a guardrail, down a steep embankment ...

May 22, JOPLIN, Mo. - A massive tornado that blasted a four-mile path across southwestern Missouri slammed into the city of Joplin with cataclysmic force. The tornado Sunday night ripped into a hospital, destroyed neighborhoods and upended cars. An unknown number were killed in Joplin. Officials struggling to communicate without power and cellphone service were leery of putting a hard figure ...

MELBOURNE, Australia--Firefighters have brought a massive fire at a Melbourne petrochemical factory under control after it ignited tens of thousands of gallons (liters) of mineral oil. The blaze started Thursday on the outskirts of the Australian city, setting off explosions and sending massive fire balls into the air. The Australian Broadcasting Corp. says it raced through 130,000 gallons (500,000 liters) of ...

VENTURA, Calif. -- Three crew members aboard a Boeing 707 tanker loaded with jet fuel escaped with only minor injuries when the aircraft skidded off the runway and exploded into flames at a Southern California Navy base, officials said. The plane crashed as it was taking off from Naval Base Ventura County Point Mugu at about 5:25 p.m. Wednesday. It slid ...

BOSTON - The City of Boston and six truck maintenance shops have been sued for their alleged roles in allowing a 49,000-pound firetruck to go out on the road with faulty brakes, leading it to plunge down a hilltop street two years ago, killing a firefighter and damaging a Mission Hill apartment complex. The lawsuit was filed by Federal Insurance Company, ...

ORLAND, Ind. — Crews had to pull a firefighter to safety after he fell through the ice while trying to reach a dog from a northeastern Indiana lake. Orland firefighters were called Sunday by the owners of the dog after it walked onto the half-inch ice of Lake Pleasant and fell in. Firefighter Mike Garrison inched out while wearing full rescue ...

ATLANTA - An investigation of video taken of a Griffin woman just moments after she was killed in a car accident will continue in hopes of identifying the second voice captured during the recording, officials said Friday. Related A Spalding County firefighter was notified Thursday that he will be terminated for using his cell phone camera to record the image of ...

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - A parked Spokane Fire Department engine with nobody at the wheel rolled into a home where firefighters were making an aid call. Fire Chief Bobby Williams says the truck had been parked about 100 yards from the home Wednesday night. Shortly after medics walked inside, they heard the crash. KXLY-TV reports the engine knocked down porch supports ...

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. (AP) - A 50-pound gas tank dumped in a Massachusetts salvage yard has exploded and rocketed into the air before crashing through solar panels and the roof of a nearby home and landing in a bedroom. Fire department Deputy Chief Thomas Levy says two people were at the home in Bridgewater, a town of about 25,000 residents just south ...

DISTRICT HEIGHTS, Md. - Three men are dead and two medics safe after a fast-moving sport utility vehicle traveling in the wrong lane sideswipes an ambulance early Thursday. "An eyewitness indicated [the SUV] could have been going as fast as 100 mph," says Mark E. Brady, spokesman for Prince George's County Fire and EMS. "I shudder to think what would have ...

MANATEE, FL — It was a firefighter’s worst nightmare. The critically injured teenager that Arthur Kersey helped remove Sept. 1 from the mangled wreckage of a head-on collision was his own son, Dylan. But in the predawn darkness of the 5:42 a.m. crash, Kersey didn’t recognize the wreckage of the heavily damaged 1996 Chevrolet or the bloody victim he helped extricate. ...

THEODORE, Ala. — Federal regulators say they're investigating a lag of about 45 minutes between an ammonia leak at a refrigeration plant and the first siren blasting an offical warning to area residents. Millard Refrigerated Services, based in Omaha, Neb., says it detected the leak at its Theodore plant that freezes chickens at 9:05 a.m. Monday and alerted authorities within 20 ...

FAIRFAX, Va. - A Fairfax teenager died in an electrical accident Tuesday night. Officials and neighbors say the 17-year-old boy had been using a power saw to trim trees in the 4200 block of Berritt Street in Fairfax City when the accident occurred about 6:15 p.m. Tuesday. The teenager, a student at Fairfax High School, was working about 10 feet from ...

MELBOURNE, Fla. -- A 72-year-old Florida woman was accidentally shot by her husband during a "robbery drill" the couple staged to practice how they'd respond to an intruder. The Brevard County Sheriff's Office says Arnold and Patricia Morris had little experience with guns, and the shooting Sunday was an clearly accidental. Arnold Morris called 911 after the .380-caliber pistol fired, and ...

FARMINGTON, MO — Six volunteer firefighters survived a rollover accident in the Farmington Fire Department's pumper tanker truck, one that the Missouri State Highway Patrol says was caused by another motorist. Investigators say the driver of the tanker were trying to avoid a motorist during a routine fire call. The Farmington volunteer crew had their lights and sirens blaring heading down ...

JACKSON TOWNSHIP — A Jackson Township motorcyclist was killed when he collided with an ambulance taking an elderly woman to the hospital late last night, authorities said. Charles Childs, 27, was riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle on North Hope Chapel Road shortly before midnight when he crossed the center line and hit the southbound ambulance, police said. The crew from the ...

BOSTON - A minivan collided with a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority bus in Dorchester yesterday evening, injuring 14 people, including three children in the van, police said. The crash occurred at Gallivan Boulevard and Morton Street, one of Boston’s most hair-raising intersections, around 6:20 p.m. MBTA spokeswoman Lydia Rivera and Transit Police Sergeant Detective Kenneth Sprague said that the cause of ...